It is perhaps as much from the impulse which Ernesti gave to sacred and profane criticism in Germany, as from the intrinsic excellence of his own works in either department, that he must derive his reputation as a philologist or theologian. In conjunction with Gesner, he instituted a new school in ancient literature, while with Semler lie partially co-operated in the revolution of Lutheran theology.

From the Reformation down to the latter half of the 18th century, Germany was far excelled by Holland in the number and excellence of her philologists; and it was not until the appearance of Gesner and Ernesti, with their somewhat earlier contemporaries, Cortius, Daniel Longolius, and Michael Heusinger, that she could oppose above one oj two rivals to the great critics of the Dutch schools. Gesner and Ernesti, however, through the influence of their lectures at the greater universities of Göttingen and Leipsic, through the wider extent of their labours in philology, and still.

more through the greater excellence of their methods, are entitled to be held the founders of the new German school of ancient literature. Both, but especially Ernesti, detected grammatical niceties in the Latin tongue, in regard to the consecution of tenses, for instance, which had escaped preceding critics. His canons are, however, not without exceptions. As an editor of the Greek classics, Ernesti deserves hardly to be named beside his Dutch contemporaries, Hemsterhuis, Valckenaer, Ruhnken, or his colleague Reiske. The higher criticism was not even attempted by Ernesti. But to him and to Gesner the praise is due of having formed, partly by their discipline and partly by their example, philologists greater than them selves, and of having kindled the national enthusiasm for ancient learning.

As a theologian, Ernesti is far less conspicuous than as a scholar, and his influence is not so marked either on his contemporaries or on his successors. It is, indeed, chiefly in hermeneutics that Ernesti has any claim to the character of a great theologian. But here his merits are distinguished, and, at the period when his Institutio Interpretis N. T. was published, almost peculiar to himself. In it we find the principles of a general interpretation, formed without the assistance of any particular philosophy, but consisting of observations and rules which, though already enunciated, and applied in the criticism of the profane writers, had never rigorously been employed in biblical exegesis. He admits in the sacred writings as in the classics only one acceptation, and that the grammatical, convertible into and the same with the logical and historical. He therefore justly censures the opinion of those who in the illustration of the Scriptures refer everything to the illumination of the Holy Spirit, as well as that of others who, disregarding all knowledge of the languages, would explain words by things, and thus introduce into the holy writings their peculiar glosses and opinions. The “analogy of faith,” as a rule of interpretation, he greatly limits, and teaches that it can never alone afford the explanation of words, but only determine the choice among their possible significations, and must always stand in need of philology as an assistant. Every principle of his interpretation, however, rests on · the assumption of the inspiration of the Scriptures, and he seems unconscious of any inconsistency between that doctrine as usually received and his principles of hermeneutics. It must be admitted that those of his followers who have seen the inconsistency, and endeavoured by one means or other to obviate it, have been more logical than their master. In the higher criticism of the sacred books Ernesti did nothing. In dogmatic he always expressed great contempt of strict systematic theology; and though he lectured for many years on the Aphorisms of Neumann, it was rather in refutation than in support of his text-book.

Among his works the following are the more important :—I. In classical literature: Initia Doctrinae Solidioris, 1736, 8vo, many subsequent editions; Initia Rhetorica, 1730; editions, mostly annotated, of Xenophon’s Memorabilia (1737), Cicero (1737-39), Suetonius (1748), Tacitus (1752), the Clouds of Aristophanes (1754), Homer (1759-64), Callimachus (1761), Polybius (1764), as well as of the Qucesiura of Corradus, the Greek lexicon of Hedericus, and the Bibliotheca Latina of Fabricius (unfinished); Archoeologia Litteraria, 1768, a new and improved edition by Martini; Horatius Τursellinus de Particulis, 1769. II. In sacred literature: Antirnuratoriιιs, sive Confutatio Disputationis Muratorianoe de rebus lUurgicis, 1755-58; Neue Theologische Bibliothek, vols. i. to X. 1760-69, 8vo; Institutio Interpretis Nov. Test., 3d ed., 1775, 8vo; Neueste Theologische Bibliothek, vols. i. to x. 1771-75, 8vo. Besides these, he published above a hundred smaller works in the form of prefaces, academical dissertations, programmata, memoriae, elogia, epistles, orations, translations, &c., many of which have been collected in the three following publications :— Opuscula Oratoria, 1762, 2d edit. 1767, 8vo; Opuscula Philologica et Critica, 1764, 2d edit. 1776, 8vo; Opusβula Theologica, 1773, 8vo.

ERNESTI, Johann Christian Gottlieb (1756-1802), nephew of the preceding, a distinguished classical scholar and critic, was born at Arnstadt, Thuringia, in 1756. After attending the gymnasium of his native town, he eutered the university of Leyden, where he had the advantage of his uncle’s superintendence in his studies. He obtained his master’s degree in 1777, but continued his studies till 1782. On the 5th June of that year he was made supplementary professor of philosophy at his native university; and on the death of his cousin August Wilhelm, he was in 1802 elected professor of rhetoric. He died on the 5th June of the same year, having discharged his new professional duties for only five months.

His principal works are an edition of Aesopi fabulae Gr. (1781), ∏csychii glossoe sacroe emendationibus notisque illustratae (1785), Suidce et Phavorini glossae sacroe (1786), Silii Italici Punicorum Libri Septemdecim, etc., 2 vols. (1791 and 1792), Lexicon Technologies Groeconim rhetoricae (1795), Lexicon Technologioe Romanorum rhetoricae (1797), and Cicero's Geist und Kunst (1799-1802). He also edited some of his uncle’s works.